OH NO! I just examined the shifters I bought more closely and discovered the downshift lever on the right shifter is very stiff and can only complete a shift when I apply opposite pressure to the brake lever. I did some searching and this seems to be a common problem with these shifters and usually not fixable.

I paid $10 for my Ultegra 9spd STIs because they had this issue, in addition to the worst case of gummy grease I've seen. It's a separate problem, although lubing helped it a bit - it was evident after I'd stripped, cleaned and lubed the levers; I had to take each of them apart like three or four more times to tweak the springs enough...

I sorted it by making the flippers' springs softer and making the big gear levers' springs stiffer. I used long-nosed visegrips to hold one end of the spring and some stubby long-nosed pliers to hold the other end of the spring to coil or uncoil it enough to sit at least about 5-10 degrees away from where it was. Reassembly is likely to be a little trickier as a result, particularly if the flippers' springs don't have a little groove in the pins they rest against, but at least you don't have to disassemble the whole mechanism to perform this fix. Getting the guts of an STI back together can be a hair-tearing exercise... oh, and if working on one of these, take all steps you can think of to guard against flying, never-to-be-retrieved springs... work on a rag on the floor, for a start. You need a special tool, but you can carve one out of an 8mm socket with a cutting disk on a dremel. With a bit of care, the socket can still work on nuts as thin as you'll find. If you look at the thread in my sig, that should give you a rough idea... the 8spd levers were quite different, but all the same principles apply... 9spd is a little trickier to reassemble.

Nothing new here, I'm just trying to keep an eye on this discussion because I just damaged the right brake lever/shifter and I may need to take a look at this to help me try to find what the problem is (it shifts okay but the brake lever sticks when I attempt to use it).

Nothing new here, I'm just trying to keep an eye on this discussion because I just damaged the right brake lever/shifter and I may need to take a look at this to help me try to find what the problem is (it shifts okay but the brake lever sticks when I attempt to use it).

The brake lever not working is probably a much easier issue to repair than the shifters themselves.

The brake lever not working is probably a much easier issue to repair than the shifters themselves.

Totally, special tool not required.

But if you get stuck on the grub screw retaining the pivot, you might need to wrap a layer or two of foil around your 2mm allen key while you wait for the WD40 to do its thing on the rusty grub screw... bit of a dealbreaker if that grub screw's trashed... although I guess in most STIs the pivot sits pretty tight without the screw's help, and you could always tap a larger thread.

Dunno about 9/10; haven't even got my hands on a set of 10spd ones yet...

But there's a pair of RX100 8spd levers awaiting my attention, I was thinking of showing some peeps the go when I get around to it, and maybe getting one of em to shoot a vid. Have to edit the bejeesus out of it, though...

Thanks Kimmo. A gallant effort to document the process! I hate to complain about it, but it must be said, most of those photos are so blurry that the important details are impossible to make out! That's the bummer with camera phones isn't it! I hate that i can't get mine to focus where i want. Still, the thread is helpful and I'm hoping i can get my shifter back together.

Mine are apart now. Perhaps if i ever manage to get them together again, i'll try to get in-focus pictures to add to the thread.

Well i'm trying to get mine back together and i think i'm close, but i haven't figured out the right orientation for these bits. In other words, i think the assembly on the left is good so far, but then as i get to the components on the right, i'm not sure of the order and orientation. then the parts that go on after that, i think i have figured out more or less. I may eventually stumble on the right configuration but there seems to be a lot of combinations to try!

I've been searching for a schematic or better pictures for two days, but this is still the best i've found.

Ok, let me start by saying that there was nothing wrong with my shifters other than old grease that had gotten very pasty. If that is the case for you as well, or if you're unsure, then I would highly recommend the following:

1. Only partially disassemble the shifter, perhaps as far as getting the assembly out of the brake lever/housing but no further.
2. Degrease it as thoroughly as possible, either by soaking or spraying or some combination. Take a few days for this if necessary.
3. Re-lube it with something thinner than grease. I used tri-flow, you can use whatever you want. Remember, WD40 is not a lubricant (not for long anyway).

If that doesn't work, or if something is clearly broken and needs to be replaced, then you may need to further disassemble the unit. It's really not very difficult at all once you know how it all goes, but it can be very difficult to figure out how it all goes! I fully disassembled my right (rear) shifter, but got smart for the front shifter and went with Plan A.

Kimmo's write up is very helpful. I'm not going to write step-by-step directions, but the pictures will be very helpful, and i'll include a few tips.

The special nut with the 4 slots in it: I was able to remove and re-install that with a large, flat-blade screwdriver.

The main thing to pay attention to is the orientation of all the parts as you take them apart. You want to note which side is facing up, and where they are in terms of rotation around the main shaft.

One thing i got wrong was the order of the two ratchet rings (of course i'm making up all my own terminology here). The thicker one goes on top. Also, pay attention to the orientation. You can see them in many of the pictures.

Another tricky spot was figuring out how the black, horseshoe shaped spring went in. If you look closely at the pictures you'll see its orientation. The pieces above and below it were tricky also, but it's all visible in the pictures.

The pictures were taken as i was assembling the unit from being completely taken apart, but they're in reverse order. So the first picture is the end of the assembly and the last picture is the beginning... don't ask why...

Onya Troy, those are sweet pics. One thing though - when you post pics here from a URL, you should usually tick the 'Retrieve remote file and reference locally' checkbox, which achieves two things: it makes a local copy so we don't have to depend on the other site keeping it up, and it makes the pics clickable thumbnails, which prevents the page reaching epic length requiring mucho scrollage.

It'd be more of a PITA for you to edit your post to change it than for me to just go ahead and copy the image addresses and re-post em, so if you could delete the pics from your post now, that'd be great. Or you could go to quote this post, copy the code and edit it into your post and I'll delete it from mine, whatever.

...Except never mind all that, cause for some obscure reason the damn site refuses to accept your pics, occasionally claiming they're GIFs, which it claims to allow anyway. And you prolly tried to do as I advised in the first place, and hit this stupid glitch. I guess if I report this post to the Mods, that might start the ball rolling on a fix... fingers crossed.

Anyway, back to the topic, IMO these 1st-gen levers are probably the most durable of STIs, and I'd say more than 99% of failures are due to the crap grease. IIRC, lithium grease is meant to last indefinitely, without separating into its components after a decade or so like cheaper stuff.

I like your advice about not fully disassembling; I'll definitely second that - in which case I reckon a thick oil is likely the go, because you can't really grease an assembled mechanism (without a vacuum pump). FB's Chain L #5 is a good one. Although if you're gonna go that route and avoid the full strip, pay particular attention to degreasing and working loose the little hair-sprung pawls, because these are almost certainly the culprit.

Kimmo, I finally got myself a pair of these levers, however, they are in quite the bad condition. Do you know if the lever body is chrome plated? Same with the name plate? My pair has rust/corrosion on it, and it looks like its plated, rather than polished. Would I be able to sand it down to the metal and polish up? and another problem is the lever pivot. It's breaking apart, so I'm thinking its best to just rob the lever body from my RSX and then repair the shifting mechanism.

Oh, and do you know where to source some hoods? It'll be nice to have the proper 600 hoods, but if they are too dear and scarce, then I'll just use the RSX(ST-1055) hoods as well.

Will get to work on mine in a few weeks, and will also post another guide.